A couple are facing jail after admitting keeping 11 dogs, nine geese, a pony, two goats and a cat in the dark, filthy cellar of their south Wales home.

RSPCA inspectors said they had never previously come across the sort of stench and dirt they found at Eric and Doreen Buckley's home in Pontypridd.

When asked why he was keeping so many animals in such terrible conditions, Mr Buckley said: "Why not?"

The couple had already been banned for life from keeping animals in 1993 for earlier breaches of welfare regulations.

Police and the RSPCA raided the couple's three-storey home, a former pub, last June.

Speaking after a brief hearing at Pontypridd magistrates court, RSPCA inspector Nicola Johnston said: "I have never seen anything like it before in my life. Even before going inside the house, you could sniff the air outside and realise something was wrong. Inside, it was beyond anything I have ever seen, or hope ever to see again."

She said the cellar was unlit and covered in a thick layer of animal waste.

"You stood there in complete blackness, squishing and squashing underfoot as you walked," she said. "To think that somebody thought it was a fit place to keep animals was incredible."

The couple, aged 56 and 46, both admitted seven charges – two for breaching previously imposed banning orders and five for causing unnecessary suffering and failing to meet welfare needs of the animals.

District judge Jill Watkins said: "You should understand that I believe that this case merits a custodial sentence."